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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄.
[0𝟑]. 𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆
𝐏𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃, 𝐏𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐎.
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 】
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❛ 𝘐'𝘔 𝘗𝘙𝘖𝘔𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘋 𝘍𝘙𝘖𝘔
𝘙𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛-𝘏𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘔𝘈𝘕 𝘛𝘖
𝘉𝘖𝘋𝘠𝘎𝘈𝘜𝘙𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘑𝘖𝘚𝘐𝘌
𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘗𝘜𝘚𝘚𝘠𝘊𝘈𝘛𝘚? ❜
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𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐙𝐌𝐀𝐍'𝐒, 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐁𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐎𝐍 were pulled out of class and ordered to meet Doctor Saltzman in the library after the eventful occurrences of the day before. The four watched Alaric collect relevant books off the shelves as they awaited for the man to give them answers about the punishment they were receiving. It was obvious by the teens body language that none of them were happy about what they were being forced to do.

"This makes no sense, Dad," Lizzie was the first to object. "Why are we being punished?"

Alaric gave Lizzie an exasperated look, deeming the answer obvious. "Because you started the brawl at a charity football game that risked exposing what we are."

Nathaniel snorted. "Ouch."

Lizzie pouted. "Well, you weren't mad last night."

"I was mad last night!" Alaric informed, shaking his head. "My undying love for my daughters just happened to trump my rage."

"That's so touching," Nathaniel cooed sarcastically.

Lizzie groaned, eyeing Nathaniel. "Your commentary isn't necessary."

Nathaniel smirked. "Neither is your bitching, yet here we are."

"Behave," Alaric warned, intervening in his children's hostile exchange before walking down the steps to the study tables and setting the books he had in hand down. Ensuing, he turned to face the four teenagers. "I volunteered everyone in the game, so stop complaining. You're lucky that it's just community service and not actual jail time."

Nathaniel snorted. "Pretty princess wouldn't be able to last a day behind bars."

"Can I at least offer a rebuttal in my defense, if it pleases the court?" Lizzie asked, ignoring Nathaniel's comment and in return, Alaric rolled his eyes and gestured towards her to go ahead and defend herself. "First of all, I was provoked- my response was totally proportional considering the levels of abuse that I was forced to endure."

"Oh, yeah," Nathaniel butted in, feigning exaggerated concern with a hint of sarcasm. "Spare her, Ric. Don't you see the poor witch is the victim in this situation?"

Hope couldn't help but chuckle at Nathaniel's comment, but it only earned her a side-eye from the nephilim and as quickly as the smile came, it was completely washed off her face, leaving a frown in its place. The tribrid knew things were going to be rocky between them for some time- even more so now than before- and she couldn't blame him. Hope had intended on hurting Nathaniel; what she hadn't meant was almost killing him.

"And secondly," Lizzie continued, more upset by the side comments, before hesitating anxiously on what she wanted to say. It was a second before she decided on blurting out what she was thinking. "If anyone should take the blame, it's Josie."

Josie gave Lizzie a betrayed and offended look. "What?"

"Bitch move," Nathaniel murmured as he shook his head, feeling slightly offended for Josie.

Lizzie instantly noticed how her comment hurt Josie. "I'm sorry. I totally cracked during cross, but if you had just let Kaleb catch that ball-" she tried backpedaling.

"Yeah, okay," Josie scoffed.

"You'd still be in trouble," Alaric redirected their conversation back to the punishment, his expression stern on Lizzie.

Hope, amused by the scene unfolding before her, interjected before Alaric could continue. "But nice job throwing your sister under the bus."

Josie gave Hope a grateful look. "Thank you, Hope."

That exchange made Lizzie feel like everyone turned against her, which earned Josie a glare from the blonde. It was followed by a silent argument through facial expressions between the twins and Nathaniel watched in amusement. The gemini witch bond was under attack and it was chucked down to Hope Mikaelson. If Nathaniel wasn't upset with Hope, he might've high fived her for the accomplishment.

After a moment, Alaric once again tried to get to the point of their argument. "Speaking of, the bus leaves in ten minutes, and I expect all four of you on it, working together today, harmoniously and without drama. End of debate."

Nathaniel furrowed his brows. "What?"

Hope scoffed. "I wasn't even at the game. Why am I being punished?"

Nathaniel turned towards Hope, acknowledging her for the first time after the events of the day before. "You know what you did, Mikaelson," he spat before turning to face Alaric. "I get why this is a punishment for her, she screwed up- big time, may I add. But why the hell am I being scorned too? If I do recall, I was the one completely wronged in that situation."

That peaked Lizzie and Josie's curiosity about the occurrences of the previous day. Alaric swiftly evaded the twins' matching inquisitive stares to avoid having to respond to any questions about what happened with Landon and Rafael or why Nathaniel was more irritable around Hope than usual.

"This isn't a punishment for you, Nate," Alaric cleared up the confusion, but Nathaniel still frowned. "I trust you to keep everyone in check like you always do. If anything, this a promotion."

"Can I refuse this promotion?" Nathaniel asked seriously, but Alaric shook his head, dead set on his decision. "So what? I'm promoted from right-hand man to bodyguarding Josie and the pussycats? That sounds like a demotion if I've ever heard one."

Alaric sighed. "Please?"

Nathaniel groaned after a second. "Fine, but I'm taking Jed."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Alaric vacillated.

"He'll behave, Ric."

After a moment, Alaric sighed, giving in. "Fine. But I want you both on your best behavior. I know when you two are together, you're a ticking time-bomb. So, don't make me regret this."

"Yes, sir," Nathaniel saluted.

"Alright, then," Alaric nodded. "Now go. All of you."

The following thirty minutes of boarding the Salvatore School bus and making their way to town square was irritating, to say the least. Nathaniel rode up front with Dorian and Jed so their supervisor could have a good look at what the nephilim and the alpha were up too, which was almost always plain trouble, but at that exact moment they were behaving. Mostly. If flicking pieces of paper at Dorian's head wasn't considered, in Alaric's book, as misbehaving.

As the students who were being punished- including Jed and Nathaniel, who were said to just be observing- were in the process of getting off the bus, where Lizzie trailed behind Hope, taking the opportunity to poke at her in hopes of getting information out of the tribrid. Nathaniel simply rolled his eyes and zoned out their little exchange as he and Jed walked past them.

"It's bad enough we get punished while the humans get a pass, but there ain't no way in hell I'm picking up their garbage," Kaleb decided on voicing, bringing in everyone's attention.

Nathaniel snorted. "Tough luck, fangs."

"And so, the nephilim speaks," Kaleb turned his attention to Nathaniel.

"Well," Nathaniel nodded, pausing sarcastically as he smirked at the vampire. "It is an American right, Kaleb."

Jed snorted next to Nathaniel and the nephilim turned to smile at the alpha. Kaleb on the other hand rolled his eyes before turning to Lizzie and holding out the tool Dorian had handed off to the him. In return, Lizzie immediately scoffed, holding up her hands in rejection.

"I don't do trash."

Jed deadpanned. "Here we go."

And as Lizzie was preparing to continue, Hope appeared behind Kaleb, walking up towards them. "I love trash... as of now."

"Perf. It suits you," Lizzie snarked before turning to Josie, who seemed unimpressed with her attitude. "Looks like we're scrubbing paint today."

"Dad told us to work together, okay? Harmoniously," Josie stated.

Nathaniel nodded. "A valid point there, Elizabeth."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and he also said without drama, and I am felling a rage attack coming on, so I will be remaining drama-free over by that wall of graffiti. Are you coming or not?"

Hope narrowed her eyes, unable to tolerate Lizzie's behavior. "I don't know, Lizzie- is there another bus you want to throw me under?"

Nathaniel watched stunned as the twins argued and Josie walked away from Lizzie towards Hope, making it clear as day that she intended on working with the tribrid instead. At this, Lizzie seemed visibly offended by Josie's choice, which lead her to make it known to everyone in their presence that she was hurt by it.

"Fine, Daddy's girls," Lizzie spat before looking around at the rest of the students. "Anyone else?"

Kaleb smirked and walked away as the others split up to deal with their corresponding tasks while Josie and Hope proceeded to grab trash bags to pick up the litter.

Nathaniel felt bad. "We'll go," he spoke up, catching Hope and Josie's attention as Lizzie looked at Nathaniel in confusion. "Rather watch you scrubbing paint than stick around to watch tribitch pick up garbage."

Nathaniel didn't miss the hurt look on Hope's face, and instead of it making him feel better, the nephilim felt like an ass. But instead of turning and apologizing, Nathaniel walked around Lizzie to make his way towards the graffiti walls with Jed and MG on his trail. The blonde gemini witch sighed heavily as she rolled her eyes before picking up the pace to follow them.

SALVATORE IS 4 LOOSERS.

Nathaniel looked at the purple spray-paint in utter astonishment of the small brain the person who wrote that had to have. It wasn't until seconds later and Lizzie spoke up that Nathaniel was brought out of his thoughts.

"Come on MG, any slower and you'd be going in reverse."

MG turned to Lizzie. "Look, I'm doing the best I can without vamping in public."

Kaleb scoffed condescendingly. "That's just plain pitiful, bruh."

Lizzie looked at Kaleb annoyingly. "Well, at least he's trying. I don't see you pitching in."

Kaleb sat on a nearby stool, rolling his eyes. "Because this whole thing's whack. What, we get punished for wanting to win a game fair and square?"

"It wasn't fair. We're supernatural, they're human," MG piped up.

"And Lebron's maybe the best player ever. Should he quit scoring because no one on the court can check him?" Kaleb scoffed again.

"It's not the same," Jed intervened.

Kaleb's attention went to Jed. "How's it not?"

Nathaniel rolled his eyes at Kaleb's arrogance. "For starters, Lebron wasn't always the best. He worked up to it. You in exchange didn't. You were turned and gained your supernatural ability because of it almost instantly. Human's are never going to be up to par no matter how much they train- you think it's fair going one on one with me knowing I can rip your head off before you notice what's happening? Your strength doesn't compare to mine, and neither does theirs to yours."

Kaleb shook his head, disagreeing. "That doesn't mean we got something to apologize for."

Nathaniel sighed before voicing the words Alaric often used with him. "It's not about apologizing, Kaleb. It's about responsibility- having power and knowing how to use it correctly so that you don't hurt those that can't defend themselves. Be better."

Silence ensued and although Nathaniel knew he had struck a cord with Kaleb, the vampire wasn't agreeing with anything he had said any time soon. Just then, a group of teenagers- who Nathaniel picked up as human- approached them. Even though there wasn't anything distinctive about them, Nathaniel knew they were Mystic Falls High School kids and he scrunched up his face in annoyance.

"Hypothetical question," the blond boy with the milkshake said as a smug grin appeared on his face before continuing his irritating taunt. "How bad would it suck if whoever did this graffiti just came back tonight and put it right back up again?"

The small blonde girl behind him cooed. "Hmm?"

"Well, whoever it is, I hope he improves his spelling," Lizzie snarked.

Nathaniel snorted at that, which instantly caught the blonde girl's attention as she smiled. "Hey."

"I don't do blondes," Nathaniel furrowed his brows, shrugging off the pesky human instantly.

Lizzie snorted. "He's busy, Dana."

Still not backing down, Dana rolled her eyes. "He can speak for himself, Saltzman."

Nathaniel hummed, quickly picking up on the rivalry before appointing himself to Lizzie's side. "I already did, Dana. And as my sister just pointed out, we're very busy, loads of work to do as you can see... you know- cleaning after people who think graffitiing walls makes them super cool."

Lizzie smiled gratefully at Nathaniel before it turned sarcastic once facing Dana. And before anyone could even process what was happening, the blond boy rapidly ripped the top off of his cup, throwing the contents at Lizzie. The strawberry milkshake fell on the gemini witch's neck, chest and skirt, causing her to instantly gasp as it hit her.

"Oh! That's my bad. My bad."

Nathaniel was livid.

And just as he was about to swing, Jed held him back, whispering into his ear. "He's human, Nate."

That's when Nathaniel let out a hefty breath before closing his eyes for a second and opening them again to smile sarcastically at the humans. Everyone's eyes were on him as he walked towards MG and looked into the bucket the vampire had in front of him. Once he noticed its contents were a dirty purplish color, he picked it up.

And before the human teens saw it coming, he flung the dirty water at them, drenching them completely.

Surprised gasps and disbelieving scoffs ensued.

And Nathaniel finished it off by throwing the empty bucket at the blond kid's feet with a thud.

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unedited.
SHOCKER, nathaniel forbes and
lizzie saltzman don't hate each other!1!1
and they act like normal siblings!1!1
btw i'm popping these out like no ones
business, i'm surprised lmao.